My travelogue of a journey through 1000 bars in 1 year, and more, much more.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Our Congress At Work

Members of the House of Representatives, led by their new Republican majority, will kick off the 112th Congress this morning with a reading of the U.S. Constitution. The reading is largely a political maneuver, so it's no real surprise that the Constitution you'll hear read on C-SPAN this morning will be the politically correct version.

That is because no elected politician wants to stand up and read aloud the Founder's vision of African Americans equaling three-fifths of a white person, so the GOP has decided to leave that part, and others, out when the Constitution is read today.

The reading of the Constitution on the House floor has never been done before, and it's only happening today thanks to the tea party. Throughout the campaign last year, "returning to the Constitution" (in a vague and largely undefined way) was sacred to the tea party, and supporters of reading the document aloud today seem to hope that hearing the words in the House chamber will cause members to adhere to the document more closely.

Democrats and Republicans are expected to participate in the reading, but not all members of Congress think it's a worthy use of their time. So of course, before time is wasted reading only the politically correct parts of the Constitution, additional time is being wasted while members debate about whether or not the Constitution should be read at all.

Oh well, what else have they got to do with their time? Deal with the economy, unemployment, the national debt, the wars in Afghanistan and Iran? Hah, that can wait. Let's grandstand a bit first.

Any bets on whether or not John Boehner tears up when he reads his part?